Grieving Residents Rally Together After Factory Shooting

​Police guard the front door of Excel Industries in Hesston, Kan., Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016, where a gunman killed three people and injured many more (Fernando Salazar/The Wichita Eagle via AP).

Page Content

Grieving residents of this small Kansas town parked riding lawnmowers with American flags planted beside them along some streets on Saturday and adorned them with “Hesston Hustler Strong” signs in a symbolic reference to the lawn equipment brand from the factory where a gunman killed three co-workers.
(Washington Post)

Gunman kills 3, wounds 14 at lawn care company
A gunman killed three people in shootings that ended at a lawn care company in Kansas on Thursday, authorities said. An additional 14 people were injured--10 of whom are in critical condition at local hospitals. Police killed the shooter, bringing the total number of fatalities to four.
(CNN)

Kansas Shooter Issued Restraining Order Before Killings, Cops Say
Cedric Larry Ford, who allegedly killed three people and injured 14 others Thursday before police killed him, had been served shortly before with a restraining order meant to keep him away from a former girlfriend, Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton says.
(ABC News)

Police served the order of protection from abuse to Ford while he was working at Excel Industries, about 90 minutes before witnesses reported the first shootings.
(CNN)

Webcast: Workplace Violence and Threat ManagementHow a Holistic Approach Can Give You a Real Sense of Security
Presenter: Gregory Boles, Kroll
View live: March 3, 2016, 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT (available for on-demand viewing through June 2016)
Program length: 60 minutes
From mass shootings, bomb threats and terrorism, to threatening communications and physical harassment, risks in the workplace are growing in number and complexity every year. HR professionals are often on the front lines of such crises--and with the proper knowledge and tools, they can play a crucial role in preventing, identifying and managing threatening situations. But what are those tools? And where does an HR professional even begin to implement a threat management program?
(SHRM Webcasts)

3 Ways to Reduce Risk of Workplace Violence: Laws, Policies and PoliceRecent shootings in Kalamazoo, Mich., San Bernardino, Calif., and outside Roanoke, Va., have made workplace violence a top concern these days. While employers wait for legislation to help make it easier to share more-honest references about past employees’ violent behavior, HR professionals should make sure their workplace violence prevention programs are sound and consult with their local police departments, legal experts say.
(SHRM Online)

Shootings at Work: Responding to the Unthinkable
About 5 percent of all businesses experience an incident of workplace violence each year, with this rate climbing to 50 percent at organizations with more than 1,000 employees, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The FBI found that an active shooting incident in the U.S. occurs, on average, once every three weeks. It reported that the majority of those incidents occur at businesses (45.6 percent), followed by schools (16.9 percent) and government properties (6.9 percent). What should employees do if confronted with a person with a gun at work?
(SHRM Online)